DIY record cleaning machine, possible?

nduitch · July 2009

I have been throwing around the idea of doing this for a while now and I am trying to figure out the best way to do it, which is under 100 dollars. I recently purchased a hand-held Vac from Goodwill for the project. It is a hand-held Dirt Devil that plugs into the wall, with 5amps/600 watts. Do you think this is enough? It does seem to have some balls for a hand-held, it actually torques in you hand when you turn it on. Do you think that this will be enough power? After all, it does say on the box, "The power of an upright in the palm of your hand!"

If anyone has ideas or tips about a DIY turntable, throw them in, I need all the help I can get.

Thanks,

Nate

strider · July 2009

I've seen it done, in fact I believe there's a thread around here where someone made one using a crevice tool and an upright vacuum. If I find it I'll post a link.

davidfmartin · July 2009

Here you go.

http://www.teresaudio.com/haven/cleaner/cleaner.html

bikerboy · July 2009

I used the teres audio link as a guide. I made one using an old throw away turntable and a $6 value village hand vacuum. I use a hockey puck with foam weather stripping on the bottom to turn the record. I plugged the end of the crevice tool with wood, cut a slot in it and glued velvet over it. It seems to work well, a little noisy, but the records are shiny clean and much quieter after a couple of cleanings.

http://www.enjoythemusic.com/recordcleaner.htm

hearingimpared · July 2009

bikerboy wrote: »

I used the teres audio link as a guide. I made one using an old throw away turntable and a $6 value village hand vacuum. I use a hockey puck with foam weather stripping on the bottom to turn the record. I plugged the end of the crevice tool with wood, cut a slot in it and glued velvet over it. It seems to work well, a little noisy, but the records are shiny clean and much quieter after a couple of cleanings.

http://www.enjoythemusic.com/recordcleaner.htm

I wonder how your diy compares to a Nitty Gritty or VPI RCM as far as good deep cleaning goes.

nduitch · July 2009

bikerboy wrote: »

I used the teres audio link as a guide. I made one using an old throw away turntable and a $6 value village hand vacuum. I use a hockey puck with foam weather stripping on the bottom to turn the record. I plugged the end of the crevice tool with wood, cut a slot in it and glued velvet over it. It seems to work well, a little noisy, but the records are shiny clean and much quieter after a couple of cleanings.

http://www.enjoythemusic.com/recordcleaner.htm

I'm curious, how did your design manage or get rid of the the excess liquid?

bikerboy · July 2009

Hi,
I'm at work so may have to continue later. I will post pics later of the velvet covered wand. By excess liquid do you mean as you're cleaning the record. I use Tergitol and a steam cleaner, so its-steam, vacuum, tergitol, vacuum, steam and a final vacuum. The weather stripping foam on the hockey puck keeps the liquids off of the label. I use an old brush to scrub the record with the tergitol. I dont know how it compares to a "real" RCM but I wouldnt ever spend $350 to clean records when I have only spent $450 on the phono preamp. It does make records sound much quieter. So a good $40 (most of which was for the tergitol) invested on the vinyl source side of the sound system. Its just so hard to justify spending much on vinyl when my cd playback is so very good. The new transport and dac are incredible.

george daniel · July 2009

I'm not as elaborate yet,as you,, but I use tergitol,, brush to "scrub",, then vac/rinse/vac..with my rainbow and a modified crevice attachment.

DarqueKnight · July 2009

hearingimpared wrote: »

I wonder how your diy compares to a Nitty Gritty or VPI RCM as far as good deep cleaning goes.

Here's a thread you might find interesting:

http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1121994

hearingimpared · July 2009

DarqueKnight wrote: »

Here's a thread you might find interesting:

http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1121994

Thanks for the great info Ray.

DIY record cleaning machine, possible?

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